My Day In Photos

Started the day with carrying cinder blocks for the foundation of the new habitat house. That was a chore. I then covered my first SSU Basketball games today for the paper. They both won, I might need to cover them more often.

It's not everyday.....

It's not every day when a sitting United States Senator calls you out of the blue to see what's going on. Today I got a call from Senator Rob Portman. We covered an event the other day where he was speaking and he told us that if we gave him our numbers he would call us back with some information. Today he called back...
Just in case you do not know anything about Rob, according to his website, "In 1993, Rob was elected to Congress, where he represented the diverse seven county Second District. He never received less than seventy percent of the vote. In 2005, Rob left Congress when he was asked to serve as U.S. Trade Representative, the Cabinet-level official responsible for implementing and enforcing trade policy. In his one year in the job, Rob was successful in reducing barriers to U.S. exports and increasing enforcement of trade laws to help level the playing field for American farmers, workers and service providers. Under his leadership, American exports increased and the U.S. brought its first successful legal case against China."

Granted he could could not tell me what I wanted to here, but was still good to chat with him for a few moments.
It's cool that he could take time out of his busy schedule to do that. It means that he wanted to connect with us on a personal level. I now have my suspicions that he will be a good source of information now and into the future.

One More Year

Yesterday I was elected to another term as the Vice President of the Camp Bountiful Board of Directors. This will be my second term. It was exciting because There was no votes against and as far as I can tell there was total support. This is exciting for me because there is some big things on the horizon so it will be exciting to give back to the camp in this capacity...

Corruption

So, I cover this event with the Governor of Ohio today. There are about 75 people gathered in this small room that was maybe designed to house 30 people. The governor is there to make some big announcements about dealing with some local problems. I am there covering it for the paper taking pictures and what not. When I get back to the office it turns out between here the memory card in my camera became corrupted and I lost all the photos I took. That was a hard reality to face...;( So in response I've retired that memory card....services are pending.

So get this,

So get this, I was working along today on our annual progress edition and I get a call from the World Church. The person on the other end introduces herself and says what she was doing. She worked with the Recorder's office and was filing paper work for the last Temple School class I took.
She then informs me that I am not listed as a member of the church, and that my membership must not have been recorded correctly.
So, at this point I was getting nervous about what was going to happen. I explained how I've been a member for over 20 years and I had a pending priesthood call. She then tells me she will call me back once she tries to figure things out.
So in a panic I call the mission center president to see if he had proof of my membership. He did and I called them back to get this matter taken care of.
It turns out due to my sloppy hand writing they thought my first name was Tony. Once that was realized it was fix and it was all good.
Talk about the crazy phone calls we get in a day....

Thanks for letting me rant for a while...and as always thanks for reading.

-W

My weekend

So I went to a Spiritual Growth weekend at Grove City this weekend. It was a good weekend and got to spend it will some good people. Also a friend of mine died on Friday after a long battle with multiple bouts of cancer. She has been in hospice for a while. She meant a lot to a lot of people. At her viewing held on Sunday there was a four hour wait for the receiving line. To me that is a strong testament to the person she was to all of those people. The family is having their time of morning and already has been.
We celebrated my mothers birthday yesterday, it was kinda funny because my dad picked up some birthday candles and he got the wrong number. So, we will continue to give him a hard time about it for a while.
This week I have been working on our Progress edition I have about a dozen stories to compose and have finished about two. So, the rest of the week is going to be fun...

Thanks for letting me rant a little and as always...

-W

Don't Get Comfrotable

Two weeks ago I decided to join a gym and get rid of some of these unwanted pounds.
Years ago I was active on the local Racquetball scene. For some reason or another I got out of the habit of playing.
As luck would have it some of the people that played at the gym I am now a member of are still playing. It was easy to get back into the game a few weeks ago.
I want to make sure you do not get the wrong impression, I am by NO means good at the game. I am getting better with every game played, but am not where I would like to be.
I am not sure if you even know what racquetball is, so I will explain the game.
Racquetball is a lot like tennis but with walls...
First the court in an enclosed room that has some markings to indicate certain rules.
The game can be played with up to four players, with a minimum of two. If there are four players you are playing what's called teams.
When you are playing with three people it's called cut-throat. If you play with two people you are playing against each other.
According to Racquetball rules on Wikipedia the game is explained as,
Play begins with the serve. The serving player must bounce the ball on the floor once and hit it directly to the front wall, making the ball hit the floor beyond the short line; otherwise the serve counts as a fault. The ball may touch one side wall, but not two, prior to hitting the floor; hitting both side walls after the front wall (but before the floor) is a "three wall serve", and a fault. Also, serving the ball into the front wall so that it rebounds to the back wall without hitting the floor first is a long serve, and a fault.

Other fault serves include a ceiling serve in which the ball touches the ceiling after the front wall and serving before the receiving player is ready. Also, the server must wait until the ball passes the short line before stepping out of the service box, otherwise it is a fault serve.

If the server hits the ball directly to any surface other than the front wall the server immediately loses serve regardless of whether it was first or second serve.

After the ball bounces behind the short line, or passes the receiving line, the ball is in play and the opposing player(s) may play it.

Usually, the server is allowed two opportunities (called first serve and second serve) to put the ball into play (two serve rule), although elite level competitions often allow the server only one opportunity (one serve rule).

After a successful serve, players alternate hitting the ball against the front wall. The player returning the hit may allow the ball to bounce once on the floor or hit the ball on the fly. However, once the player returning the shot has hit the ball, either before bouncing on the floor or after one bounce, it must strike the front wall before it hits the floor. Unlike during the serve, a ball in play may touch as many walls, including the ceiling, as necessary so long as it reaches the front wall without striking the floor.

Hinders

Due to the nature of the game, players often occupy the space their opponent(s) want(s) to occupy. This may result in a player hindering their opponent's ability to play the ball. Such occurrences are termed either hinders or penalty hinders. A hinder is a replay of the current rally, while a penalty hinder results in the player who caused the avoidable obstruction to lose the rally. A type of hinder is a screen in which the player is unable to see the ball prior to it passing the opponent.

The difference between a hinder and a penalty hinder (or formerly an avoidable hinder) is that in the latter case a player has missed out on a clear opportunity to make a rally-winning shot due to the obstruction by the player's opponent, while in the former case the opportunity missed would not clearly have led to a winning shot. This difference is almost always a judgment call by the referee (if available).

There is also a "court" hinder in which some part of the playing field caused the ball to bounce untrue. Often this is the door frame or (recessed) handle or a flaw in the floor or walls. In this case, the rally is replayed.

Scoring

Points can only be scored by the serving player or serving team in a doubles game, and points are the result of winning a rally that began with a successful serve.

During play, a player loses the rally if any one of the following occurs:

1. The ball bounces on the floor more than once before being struck.
2. The ball does not reach the front wall on the fly.
3. The ball flies into the spectator's gallery or wall opening or strikes an out-of-bounds surface above the court's normal playing area [cf. Rule 2.1(a)]
4. A slow ball strikes another player without the estimated velocity and/or direction to strike the front wall.
5. A ball struck by a player hits that player or that player's partner.
6. A penalized hindrance [cf. Rule 3.15].
7. Switching racquet hands during a rally.
8. Not using a racquet wrist-safety cord.
9. Touching the ball with either the body or uniform.
10. Carrying or slinging the ball with the racquet.

Under USA Racquetball rules, matches are best of three games with the first two games to 15 points and a third game to 11 points, if necessary. USA Racquetball rules do not require players to win by two, so a match score line could read 15-14, 14-15, 11-10. Racquetball Canada matches are also the best of three format, but require a winning margin of at least two points.

International competitions run by the International Racquetball Federation are like the USA Racquetball scoring system: two games to 15 with a tie-breaker to 11, if necessary, and win by 1. However, the men's and women's pro tours play matches that are the best-of-five games to 11 points, requiring a two-point margin for victory.

Game variations

Racquetball games can be played with two, three or four players, with doubles or singles matches being most common. Two player games are called singles or "one-up" (1 vs. 1 for the entire game), while four player games are doubles with two pairs playing against each other (2 vs. 2 for the entire game). Tournament competitions have divisions for singles or doubles or both.

Three-player games are most commonly called

"Cut-throat" and sometimes "Ironman" (2-on-1 for the entire game) where each player takes turns serving to the other two, who play as a team against the serving player. Another 3 player game is "California," or "In-and-Out" where play is 1 vs. 1 with the third player remaining in the back court out of play while the other two play a rally; the rally winner then serves to the player who was sitting out, and the rally loser stays out of play. Another 3 player variation is "Sevens" in which one player plays against two players as a team, with the game being played to 7 points; if the two player team gets to 7 first, the game is over, but if the solo p

layer gets to 7 first then the game continues to 14; if the solo player again reaches 14 first, then the game continues to 21, where the game ends regardless of whether the solo player or the two player team reach 21 first.

To make all of that make sense, the game comes down to, being enclosed in a 40 foot by 20 foot room with up to four people that have racket's. Your primary objective is to bat around a ball until someone scores 15 points or until there is blood drawn.

Racquetball is a high intensity game that will have you sweating

within a few minutes.

There are some people that are really good at this game and can guide ball where they want it to go. I am not there yet but am working on it. I will keep you posted as to the weight loss aspect, once it arrives.

I know this is quite long and if you've made it this long I thank you for reading...

-W

Something I covered Today

A deer went crashing through a glass door at Reynolds & Company CPA on sixth street in Portsmouth Friday afternoon. The office was full of employees and consumers at the time of the event. When the deer broke through the door a shard of glass cut deeply into it's neck, which caused the animal to bleed profusely while confused about it's surroundings. The deer gained access to the upper floor of the business and caught a glance of a window. The deer attempted to escape through the window and was unsuccessful, bounced off the window while someone was in the office. Employees were able to contain the animal in a first floor office. The Portsmouth Police, Fire and service department responded to the scene. A Portsmouth Police officer shot the deer dead. The service department aided in the removal of the deer once the deer was removed a bystander asked to see if he could have the deer, service department gave the deer away.

It's not every day you here something like this.....

Pictures Of People Taking Pictures

Today's Blog title comes from a song by Jack Johnson, "Pictures Of People Taking Pictures." Kinda fits hugh? The other day I was in such a bad mood and wanted to crawl into a hole and not come out until morning. Recognizing I was in that mood I needed something to distract me. So I decided to clean. In that cleaning I ran across the camp logs from this summer. I then stopped and look at them with such fond memories of the good times that we had over the summer. After reading the logs and reading what everyone wrote about me in them my mood improved and it was a productive cleaning session.
There is this photo that has been around for a while that's kind of fitting, the photo's text states, "its funny how a photograph can take you back in time to the places and embraces that you once left behind."
May each of us take the time in the near future take the time to think about those places and people that we have seen and experienced God in.

Crazy Love

Crazy Love, I finished the book yesterday and wanted to pick it up again and read it. It has so
many messages that I was not able to pick up on them all the first time through. This is defiantly
one of those books you keep on your shelf and read again and again.
Here are a few quotes from the book that stood out to me,

“A friend of nine once said that Christians are like manure; spread them out and they help
everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly. Which are you the
kind that reeks, around which people walk a wide swath? Or the kind that trusts God enough
to let Him spread you out-weather that means going outside your normal group of Christian
friends, increasing your material giving, or using your time to help others?”

“I have made a commitment to consistently put myself in situations that scare ma and require
God to come through.”

“Our view of the holy spirit is too small. The holy spirit is the one who changes the church, but
we have to remember that the Holy spirit lives in us. It is individual people living Spirit-filled lives
that will change the church.”

There are many many more quotes just like these throughout every page of this book. I would
recommend you read it. If you want we can compare notes afterwards. There are many more
books on the agenda for the rest of the year I will let you what I select and how good of a read it
is.

Thanks for letting me rant for a while…..and thanks for reading.